Selected Papers from the MSA ECR & IMSTEC 2020

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 June 2020) | Viewed by 8068

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1. Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater (CTWW), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
2. ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy (NiCE), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Interests: membrane processes; membrane fabrication including nanocomposite membranes; water/wastewater treatment for reuse; desalination; forward osmosis process; membrane distillation; osmotic power; capacitive deionization; on-site sanitation for developing countries; source separation of urine and urine treatment for nutrient recovery; nutrient circular economy; humidification‒dehumidification desalination
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Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Interests: membrane technology; desalination technology; anaerobic digestion; molecular biology; urban water management
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UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: water and wastewater treatments by membrane processes; membrane fouling by biopolymeric materials; application of detailed characterization of macromolecular and particulate foulants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
1. Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater (CTWW), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
2. ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy (NiCE), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Interests: membrane technologies; resource recovery; desalination; wastewater treatment and reuse technologies; advanced oxidation processes; environmental nanomaterials; organic solvent nanofiltration; surface modification
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: membrane technology; desalination; wastewater reclamation; water chemistry; environmental materials

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Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 127788, United Arab Emirates
Interests: catalytic membrane reactors; nanoporous membranes; solvent separation; advanced characterization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to the MSA ECR and IMSTEC conferences.

About MSA ECR 2020

The annual Membrane Society of Australasia Early Career Researcher Membrane Symposium (MSA ECR) is a symposium especially for early career researchers (ECRs) and higher degree by research students (HDRs). This symposium aims to offer a platform for exchanging ideas and developing networks. Accomplished academics, industry experts, and renowned membrane scientists will also deliver a wide range of keynote presentations.

MSA ECR 2020 will be held at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) on 1-2 February 2020.

About IMSTEC

The International Membrane Science & Technology Conference is attended by industry and academic leaders and focuses on advances in all areas of membrane science and technology, with particular attention on water treatment, food processing, energy production and material characterisation.

IMSTEC will be jointly organised by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the Sydney University of Technology (UTS) on 2–6 February 2020.

Participants of the conferences MSA ECR 2020 and IMSTEC are cordially invited to contribute original research papers or reviews to this Special Issue of Membranes.

Note: Submissions from the attendees will enjoy a 20% discount on the article processing charge (APC)!

Dr. Sherub Phuntsho
Prof. Long D. Nghiem
Dr. Pierre LeClech
Prof. Hokyong Shon
Prof. Chuyang Tang
Dr. Ludovic Dumee
Guest Editors

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Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2916 KiB  
Article
Impact of FO Operating Pressure and Membrane Tensile Strength on Draw-Channel Geometry and Resulting Hydrodynamics
by Alexander J. Charlton, Boyue Lian, Gaetan Blandin, Greg Leslie and Pierre Le-Clech
Membranes 2020, 10(5), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes10050111 - 25 May 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3061
Abstract
In an effort to improve performances of forward osmosis (FO) systems, several innovative draw spacers have been proposed. However, the small pressure generally applied on the feed side of the process is expected to result in the membrane bending towards the draw side, [...] Read more.
In an effort to improve performances of forward osmosis (FO) systems, several innovative draw spacers have been proposed. However, the small pressure generally applied on the feed side of the process is expected to result in the membrane bending towards the draw side, and in the gradual occlusion of the channel. This phenomenon potentially presents detrimental effects on process performance, including pressure drop and external concentration polarization (ECP) in the draw channel. A flat sheet FO system with a dot-spacer draw channel geometry was characterized to determine the degree of draw channel occlusion resulting from feed pressurization, and the resulting implications on flow performance. First, tensile testing was performed on the FO membrane to derive a Young’s modulus, used to assess the membrane stretching, and the resulting draw channel characteristics under a range of moderate feed pressures. Membrane apex reached up to 67% of the membrane channel height when transmembrane pressure (TMP) of 1.4 bar was applied. The new FO channels considerations were then processed by computational fluid dynamics model (computational fluid dynamics (CFD) by ANSYS Fluent v19.1) and validated against previously obtained experimental data. Further simulations were conducted to better assess velocity profiles, Reynolds number and shear rate. Reynolds number on the membrane surface (draw side) increased by 20% and shear rate increased by 90% when occlusion changed from 0 to 70%, impacting concentration polarisation (CP) on the membrane surface and therefore FO performance. This paper shows that FO draw channel occlusion is expected to have a significant impact on fluid hydrodynamics when the membrane is not appropriately supported in the draw side. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the MSA ECR & IMSTEC 2020)
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15 pages, 4113 KiB  
Article
Selective Separation of 1-Butanol from Aqueous Solution through Pervaporation Using PTSMP-Silica Nano Hybrid Membrane
by VSSL Prasad Talluri, Aiym Tleuova, Seyedmehdi Hosseini and Ondrej Vopicka
Membranes 2020, 10(4), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes10040055 - 26 Mar 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4191
Abstract
In this work, a poly(1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne) (PTMSP) mixed-matrix membrane was fabricated for the selective removal of 1-butanol from aqueous solutions through pervaporation. Silica nanoparticles (SNPs), which were surface-modified with surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), were incorporated into the structure of the membrane. The modified membrane [...] Read more.
In this work, a poly(1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne) (PTMSP) mixed-matrix membrane was fabricated for the selective removal of 1-butanol from aqueous solutions through pervaporation. Silica nanoparticles (SNPs), which were surface-modified with surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), were incorporated into the structure of the membrane. The modified membrane was characterized by thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC), contact angle measurements, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. It was found that the surface hydrophobicity of the membrane was improved when compared to neat PTMSP by contact angle measurement. It was confirmed by SEM analysis that a uniform distribution of surface-modified SNPs throughout the PTMSP membrane was achieved. The thermogravimetric analysis detected the thermal degradation of the modified PTMSP at 370 °C, which is comparable to neat PTMSP. The pervaporation measurements showed a maximum separation factor of 126 at 63 °C for 1.5 w/w% 1-butanol in the feed. The maximum total flux of approximately 1.74 mg·cm−2·min−1 was observed with the highest inspected temperature of 63 °C and at the 1-butanol concentration in the feed 4.5 w/w%. The pervaporation transients showed that the addition of the surface-modified SNPs significantly enhanced the diffusivity of 1-butanol in the composite compared to the neat PTMSP membrane. This improvement was attributed to the influence of the well-dispersed SNPs in the PTMSP matrix, which introduced an additional path for diffusivity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the MSA ECR & IMSTEC 2020)
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